


Primeval 100 Drabbles: 351-400

by Annariel



Series: Primeval 100 Drabbles [8]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Community: primeval100, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-01-10 03:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 50
Words: 5,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mixture of drabbles for prompts drawing from all of the Primeval series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Simple Pleasures

**Author's Note:**

> his is going to collect together the drabbles for the eighth 50 Primeval 100 prompts as I write them. Therefore it is a work in progress since these only get done as prompts get posted. One of the reasons I've put "Choose not to Warn" and not listed characters and pairings is that this may well vary as more get added and the characters and pairings would probably quickly tend towards "all". Since I can add specific warning as well as "Choose not to Warn" I will add specific warnings as they crop up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 351

"It's locked!" Connor said triumphantly.

Becker allowed himself to relax slightly. They were on a sandy beach and the place was track free. 

"Sandcastles! Paddling!" Connor followed up and before Becker could blink he was hopping rapidly towards the sea while simultaneously trying to remove shoes and socks. 

Abby smiled indulgently and followed Connor at a sedate pace.

Emily looked wistful. "I have not paddled since I was little. It would not have been seemly," she said with quiet regret.

"Sandcastles?" Matt asked.

Becker decided to cut them some slack. "Go on Emily, show him. I can watch the anomaly."


	2. Missed Opportunities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 352

"She didn't let Monty accidentally run lose as a surprise?" Danny sounded personally affronted.

Jenny adopted a mournful expression and shook her head.

"Did she say `I could tell you what we do but then I'd have to kill you'?"

Jenny shook her head again.

"Tell me she at least got him to flip that switch on the ADD which gives you an electric shock."

Another shake.

"This," said Danny explosively, "is why Lorraine should not be allowed to perform new staff inductions."

"This," said Jenny with an impish grin, "is certainly why you no longer get to do them."


	3. International Cooperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 353

"Oh God, not again!" Jenny muttered to herself.

She was in her most impractical heels, wearing the kind of peach monstrosity that was the inevitable fate of the maid-of-honour, and clutching nothing more substantial than a floral bouquet.

Jenny felt the best man place a hand on her arm.

"If I might appropriate your flowers," he began.

Jenny glanced at the triceratops, and saw his thoughts immediately.

"Take hers," she nodded at the bride. "This will be easier with two of us."

Jenny Lewis and Lieutenant Leeds made their way firmly through the surprised wedding guests, bouquets at the ready.


	4. Flu Season

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 354

Two weeks back from the Cretaceous and Abby came down with 'flu. Connor plied her with nurofen, cough mixture and soup and spent the rest of the time looking doubtful and concerned.

Jess attempted to help out, but her normal bright bedside manner, only elicited groans from Abby.

"At least it didn't happen when you were stuck in the past," she said brightly to Connor.

He sighed and she actually saw him resist the temptation to snap. "The one thing we didn't have to worry about in the Cretaceous was 'flu," he said gently. "No one to catch it from."


	5. Submission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 355

Stephen glanced at his computer clock. Five minutes until the deadline.

Cutter cursed loudly.

"Do you want me to help?" Stephen asked.

"I'm fine. It's this bloody broken web interface."

Stephen had the page open on his browser. All he had to do was click upload.

"It's working here."

"Why does it want me to select banquet options?"

"I think that might be the registration page."

"Oh, aye, it might. Are you on the right page?"

"Yes."

"And you've entered all the authors and what not."

"Yes."

"You'd better do the submission then."

Stephen sighed with relief and clicked upload.


	6. Scene of the Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 356

I first met Helen Ambrose at Imperial. She was all messy hair and crumpled trousers; too focused on dinosaurs and career to contemplate dressing up or settling down.

It was a surprise, after the war started, to find her in a London nightclub dressed up in red lipstick and sophistication. I was only a junior officer and she had bigger fish to fry.

Now she was missing. I'd been pulled out of bed and driven through the blackout to Gloucestershire. 

"Heard you know about dinosaurs," was all the Captain at the scene had to say.

"Will that be relevant, sir?"


	7. On Top of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 357

Danny wasn't sure why he was at the school reunion. He'd disliked the place, but had wanted the bursary and, more importantly, opportunities and connections for finding Patrick.

Now Thomas Charterson was droning on about his finance job: shares this and derivatives that.

Only that morning Danny had stood on a snow-covered peak. The air had been thin but fresh. Under clear blue skies an untouched wilderness stretched for miles. In the far distance something large had circled in an up-draft.

"How are you doing?" Charterson asked suddenly.

"On top of the world, old son. On top of the world!"


	8. Waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 358 (Picture Prompt)

Cutter stumbled upon the waterfall almost by chance. It wasn't that he'd been unaware of it. He had a map and a guidebook and the local town was full of postcards, but it had been outside his focus and his mind had discounted its existence.

So he was pulled up short when he rounded a cliff and came face to face with its magnificence.

If Stephen had been there with him, he would have known and laughed at Cutter's previous obliviousness. But Stephen wasn't there.

Cutter shook his head. He had more important things to do than admire the scenery.


	9. You're Needed Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 359

"You're needed here!" Becker objected vehemently.

The team stood anxiously before Matt. 

Matt had told Connor what little he knew about the future's tech. He had nothing more to contribute there.

Becker, Abby and Emily were an efficient field team. Reports revealed that Becker assumed the leadership role with ease when Matt wasn't there. Abby had completed a part-time Masters degree. Coupled with her practical experience, she knew as much as Matt about the animals.

Lester was watching the scene from the balcony. His expression told Matt that Lester saw everything Matt did.

"Good Luck in your travels," Lester said.


	10. Time Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 360

Abbess Hildegard raised an eyebrow at her chief steward. "Another one so soon? Yes, gather your men."

* * *

"Hold the line!" Captain Montgomery shouted as the musketmen wavered and the monstrosity charged. "Fire on my mark!"

* * *

Aethelfrith steered her horse in a wide arc as she loosing arrows at the creature. She felt the rest of the scouts follow her lead.

* * *

"There's this chap called Owen at the Natural History Museum. I think we should involve him."

* * *

"What's this?" Lester asked as Miss Brown dumped an armful of dusty files on his desk.

"I think this has happened before," she said.


	11. Playing with Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 361

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've no idea, probably post-apocalypse.

"You know what they say about playing with fire," Danny quipped grimly.

It was the first thing he'd said in half an hour, contenting himself with merely watching in silent support as Connor doused deserted corridors with petrol.

The tang of fumes hung heavy in the air of the entrance. Connor paused a moment, the lighter flickering in his hands, then he shrugged and applied it to the vodka soaked napkin in the neck of the bottle he held.

"Been burned already," he said and tossed it through the doors.

They walked away. Behind them the ARC burst into flames.


	12. Anticipation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 362

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was short of time and this has always been my favourite Calvin and Hobbes strip.
> 
>   
> 

Calvin was complaining about his father's unadventurous attitude and platitudes as the sled swept down the hill.

"I can't think of _any_ thing I'd rather anticipate than have right away. Can you?" he asked Hobbes.

"Death comes to mind," whimpered the tiger, covering his eyes, as the sled flew through the air.

The inevitable hard landing was interrupted by the appearance of an anomaly. Moments later, the intrepid duo landed softly in a primeval swamp.

Which was lucky for them, less so for the inhabitants. Calvinosaurus, it turned out, was more than a match for anything the Carboniferous had to offer.


	13. Gossip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 363

"To which Mad Cutter do you refer? They are as batty as each other and positively scary in combination."

"So Mad Cutter's even madder wife has upped and left him. Can't say I'm surprised. Disciplinary proceedings in the offing so they say."

"Well Hart is certainly pretty enough, you can't fault Cutter's taste. Didn't finish his PhD though..."

"I hear he's got involved in some ridiculous hush hush government work. It'll be about oil or development work of some sort. Mark my words, the man's sold out."

"He was a stalwart of the department and greatly respected by everyone here."


	14. Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 364

"What's that?" Rosie asked.

John sighed. As toddlers went his sister wasn't much trouble, but he did want to finish his book before tea time. He looked up and squinted in surprise. A ball of light hung in the sky over the valley below them.

Two winged creatures flew out of it.

"Dragons!" said Rosie with satisfaction.

John blinked hard wondering if it were a hallucination or illusion.

The dragons swooped low over the wood, circled lazily around each other and then returned into the ball of light which promptly vanished.

"Married dragons!" Rosie concluded with an air of finality.


	15. Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 365

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be a Sherlock crossover, but there weren't enough words. You will all just have to imagine Mycroft Holmes in the role of ARC liaison with plans.

The new government ARC liaison snapped shut the last folder on the paperwork mountain. "That all seems to be in order."

Lester felt his eyebrows raise. "No problems?"

"None of real concern."

Lester's eyebrows rose even further.

The man smiled tightly. "After all I wouldn't want to go the way of Leek, Johnson, or Burton. You are a not a man to trifle with."

"I was in no way responsible..." Lester began.

The civil servant waved a supercilious hand. "I wouldn't want it any other way. Good day Mr. Lester. I forsee it will be a pleasure working with you."


	16. Insomnia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 366

Lyle wished heartily that waking up alone was an unusual occurrence. He rolled over and squinted blearily at the bedside clock. The bright digital display read 4am. 

"No rest for the wicked," he mumbled to himself and staggered out of bed.

The light was on in the study and he could see James at the desk. No doubt he was handling yet more paperwork related to the ARC's destruction. Lyle went to make some warm milk and see if he could persuade his lover back to bed.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Triassic, Helen Cutter slept the sleep of the just.


	17. On Thin Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 367

Wilkinson kept on running. He hardly remembered why he ran he just carried onwards and outwards. There was madness behind him and answers up ahead and that was enough. Somewhere, out on the ice fields, he would find one of the fallen stars Elkund had spoken off. Somewhere, out on the ice fields, he would learn the truth behind the strange frozen skeletons they had dug out of the ice. Behind him the howls of predators, impossible creatures that should not be, echoed on the wind.

Wilkinson kept on running across the frozen sea.

Beneath his feet the ice cracked.


	18. It's the End of the World as we Know It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 368

The small group huddled in silence while the equipment was calibrated. Down the corridors and through the ventilation ducts echoed the chittering of hunting predators. Matt kept glancing at the heart-rate monitors as, one by one, their defenders died. The predators were closing in.

The chief technician nodded and an anomaly blossomed in the centre of the room. Matt paused to make his farewells but, at that moment, the door of the room crashed inwards. A predator bounded into the group, tearing with teeth and claws. Someone screamed. Someone else pushed Matt firmly through the anomaly.

That time line ceased.


	19. Slow and Steady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 369

Bones and muscles ached as Matt carefully warmed up. Becker was training a bunch of new recruits, shouting colourful one-liners about dinosaurs, his greying hair as unruffled as always. Matt let his joints crack one last time before stepping up to join in and show the youngsters a thing or two. 

He still had a slight limp from a sprained an ankle the previous month. Things took longer to heal these days. Ditzy's hand fell lightly on his arm, stopping him.

"Best sit this one out, time is catching up with you."

Matt grimaced, "Time always wins in the end."


	20. Inspiration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 370

Jenny started as Lorraine put a cup of coffee down next to her.

"Penny for them?" Lorraine asked.

Jenny waved a hand at the images on her screen. "I can not think of a single plausible story to explain away an Apatosaurus at the Chelsea Flower Show."

"Movie shoot?"

"It can't have had permission. It ate the Best in Show garden."

"Practical joke?"

"Too big, too elaborate, too many witnesses."

"Mass hallucination?"

"Photos!" 

"Mass hallucination plus large model?"

Jenny rubbed her forehead. "Accidental release of a mind-altering drug during a Movie shoot? Lester will hate it, but it might work."


	21. Convergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 371

Lester had been forcibly surrounded with cushions, painkillers, something Lyle swore was broth, and a large whiskey. Lyle was now pacing.

"Please sit down."

Lyle sat opposite him, arms folded and scowling.

Lester laughed, but instantly regreted it. Lyle's frown deepened.

"It really wasn't that bad," Lester tried.

"I. Wasn't. There."

"Well, possum, you were rescuing schoolchidren from a scythe lizard and then old people from a dire wolf. Even you can't be everywhere."

"It is that bad," Lyle contradicted. "You've used possum already today."

Lester closed his eyes. Being nursed by Lyle looked to be worse than nursing him.


	22. A Sporting Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 372

A strange sparkling light did/did not appear in the distance, breaking his concentration.

One Stephen, defeated, returned to his studies. His supervisor smirked, made a disparaging remarks about _machismo_ , and set him on the path that lead to disillusionment and death.

The other went on to modest sporting success entailing a gap in his academic career. Returning with broader horizons, he got a studentship at a different university and, eventually, a chair in Conservation. 

When the anomalies went public, he was as surprised and fascinated as the rest of the world.


	23. Black and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 373

"Who are these?" Bart asked, holding a photo.

Christina shrugged and twisted the file he was empyting to look at the label. Three letters: A. R. C.

It was a studio portrait in a style Christina recognised as fashionable at the turn of the century. A group of people against a plain white background, in an odd mixture of formal and informal attire. She didn't recognise any of them.

"PR shot for something? Grandma Jen worked for all sorts in her time. Not important, I think."

Bart nodded absently and dumped the file in the `for throwing out' bin bag.


	24. Squirrel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 374
> 
> Ever since seeing _Up_ my family have taken to shouting "Squirrel!" whenever anything distracting and shiny appears... or a squirrel, of course. 
> 
> Also there's [Dogsbody](http://archiveofourown.org/works/102617) by rusty_armour, and knitekat's [Wolfverse](http://knitekat.livejournal.com/189213.html) and I'm sure there's been other "Lester as dog" stories so I feel "Lester is a dog (or possibly wolf)" is practically accepted fanon.

Lester pushed his way through the undergrowth, nose to the ground, following the scent. He was concerned by the undertone of fear in the smell. While Thylacosmilus was smaller than a Smilodon, Connor claimed it was still a fearsome predator and it would be twice as dangerous if spooked. Lester didn't much like cats anyway, even if it wasn't a cat but an "interesting example of parallel evolution".

He paused at a small crag. The scent intensified by a small opening in the cliff. The Thylacosmilus could well be inside. Lester should return and let the team know.

Then...

Squirrel!


	25. Addiction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 375

Lester sat on the couch and opened the box. There was the syringe, a sealed pack of needles, and a small packet of white powder. He placed each item on the coffee table.

It hadn't been a _bad_ day. But somewhere between Danny's antics in the ducting, an Eohippus at Hampton Court, and a letter addressed to Professor Cutter, something had snapped. Lester was clean. His terribly discreet army of doctors and counsellors would have been horrified that the box even existed. He'd kept it to demonstrate who was in control.

Lester sat on the couch and contemplated its contents.


	26. Lord of the Flies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 376 and 431 (Past Challenges)

"Are we sure about this?" Connor asked piteously.

They'd been walking for nearly three hours across gently rising boggy land. They were surrounded by mountains, but the report of the anomaly came from in the valley itself. It was just a shame it was so far from a road.

"We could take another rest," Nick said.

"We'll only get eaten by midges if we do," Connor said morosely. "My lunch sandwich was more midge than bread."

"It's not just midges," Ryan remarked. "There's plenty of horse flies around here as well."

Connor groaned. "This is the worst anomaly investigation ever."


	27. Framed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 377

Carla Henson gave the frame a slight nudge so the photo hung straight. 

"Where did that come from?" Harry asked. "It's the original ARC team isn't it?"

"Believe it or not, I found it in a car boot sale, in a big pile of papers. I recognised them at once. It's a little battered at the edges but you can't see that now I've added a mount and frame."

Harry nodded. "Lucky find. Makes a nice addition to the lobby."

Carla nodded, gave the photo a final satisfied tap and then headed to her office in the Temporal Research Lab.


	28. Heat Wave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 378

A circle of burned vegetation stretched at least a mile in every direction from the anomaly. Charred skeletons of occasional trees stuck out of the blackened ground. Desolutary fires still burned on the fringes.

"Any chance of finding out where that anomaly leads?" Becker asked.

Connor grimaced. "It's too hot to get close enough for a look. We're lucky the anomalies aren't that large, otherwise we'd have lost more than a herd of cattle, several fields of wheat and a few trees. I can make an educated guess though that there's an extinction event in action on the other side."


	29. Behind Bars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 379

The raptor took three paces forwards, turned, rested the side of its head against the glass front of the cage and walked its width, head pressed against the glass the whole time. Then it returned to its starting point. It took three paces forwards to the glass again. A bare patch was worn in the feathers above its eye, so many times had it repeated the maneouvre.

Stephen watched it. Abby was overseeing the construction of a larger space, but for now it was trapped by its situation, performing repetitive and futile actions with no hope of reprieve. Stephen sympathised.


	30. GPS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 379

Matt peered at the grainy image someone had posted to the Internet. Later, it would be easy to claim it was faked, but it certainly looked like a raptor to him.

"Ecuador, you say?" he asked.

Lester nodded. "I've arranged a jet and then helicopters to the locality."

"It's rain forest. The anomaly won't be easy to find."

Lester handed him a map with a sequence of dots straggling across it. "We've been called in because a British army team was training in the area." His finger came down on one of the dots. "That's where their GPS signal failed."


	31. A Dish Best Served Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 380

Games' Night had become a thing. Connor's idea had been to play Talisman or Settlers of Catan. Instead, somehow, every Thursday, half the ARC came round and played more traditional board games.

Lester, Connor noticed, cheated at Snakes and Ladders allowing Lyle to win. Lyle would lap the flat, gloating loudly, while Lester benignly sipped a glass of sherry

Connor frowned at the Monopoly board. "Jenny, if you waive the rent on Pall Mall, I'll give you Trafalgar Square."

Jenny's lips twitched upwards in a tight smile. "Do you, by any chance, recall that time you wouldn't sell Park Lane."


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 381

Lester felt a headache coming on.

"To recapitulate, Connor lost Rex through an anomaly; followed him; hung around the Permian and then accidentally caused Rex to meet us."

Connor nodded eagerly. Lester eyed the paradoxical Rex in Abby's arms without favour.

"Connor used the opportunity to leave us that anomymous note about future predators."

"Saved Ryan's life honest!"

"Were you also the hacker who deleted half a dozen good job applications, including one Mr. Leek who is, at this very moment, causing trouble on behalf of Christine Johnson?"

Connor looked blank. "Dunno, maybe. I think accidental time-loopiness happens a lot."


	33. Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 383

Connor had a carton of eggs, some onion and herbs (brought from an actual supermarket!!), a hob, a non-stick frying pan and a wooden spatula. He stared at them, only slightly freaked.

"Problem?" Abby asked.

"No."

"You managed to make an omlette on a nicely shapped piece of slate out of pterosaur eggs, I think you can manage this."

Connor brandished the spatula at her. "Tools fit for purpose!! I am not accustomed to cooking with tools fit for purpose!!"

Abby raised her eyebrows and glanced at the kitchen corner.

"Apart from microwaves. I only understand microwaves and camp fires!"


	34. Neanderthal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 384

"So this anomaly is a regular one?" Becker asked.

Connor shrugged. "If the reconstruction of Cutter's model is correct then yeah. Every twenty five years or so."

As if on cue an anomaly flowered open in the fancy goods aisle. Becker sighed. "This department store has been here over a century, how come there aren't legends of raptors smashing china?"

Then a band of humans came through. They were wearing a selection of somewhat tattered 1980s fashions, but their features were distinctively neanderthal.

"I guess it was thefts we should have looked for in the records, not vandalism," Connor said.


	35. In the Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 385

As a child Emily had enjoyed sitting in the family library, surrounded by the smell of paper, leather and stuffed upholstery. She had read books on botany, geology, and the lives of great explorers. Books that helped her survive in the distant past.

Strange and wonderful, a library now guided her through life in the 21st century. She could hold this library between her hands. You could be in this library while crammed on a bus, surrounded by the smell of petrol and tired humans. Or it could smell of a brisk salty breeze, sweeping across a beach in September.


	36. Odysset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 386

Danny Quinn had stood on the shores of a Cambrian sea, gazing out over the stromatolites. The land was dry and barren but the water was full of promise.

He had sweated through Carboniferous swamps and dry Permian desert. He had skirted Pleistocene ice fields and swum, somewhat cautiously, in the Silurian sea.

Danny had watched a group of arthropods scuttling amid the Devonian plants and realised he was viewing some of the first land animals.

However, he had to admit, there was nothing quite like the strong mug of builders' tea someone handed him when he finally got home.


	37. Tall Tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 387

Tomorrow the traveller would leave the last settlement. The ever growing monster and dust-filled wastes would not be crossed easily, but she needed to be on the far side.

"Tell us a tale," they said.

Her gaze fell on Jestyn, who asked too many questions and poked around in the machines that remained from before.

"I do not often tell this tale," said the traveller. "My mother told it to me and it came from her father. It purports to be the story of the beginning of the end. Once upon a time, there was a man named Nicholas Cutter..."


	38. Reach for the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 388

The magnetite cage was bolted to the floor of the spacecraft. Connor fussed around the technicians but Lester could tell that everything was, in fact, ready.

"This going to hold the wormhole anomaly thing?" the minister asked.

Lester nodded. "That's the idea sir. The cage will cause it to move with the spacecraft while the other end remains here on Earth."

The minister nodded sagely. Lester doubted the man understood the science any better than Lester. Then again, such understanding wasn't necessary. The potential value of instantaneous travel between Earth and Moon and, if this was successful, beyond was clear.


	39. In the Pub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 389

The ARC team drank with the close-knit solidarity of those who shared an all-consuming secret, and with the fervour of people who weren't sure they would live into next week.

Frankly it was a wonder nowhere had banned them. Somehow though, just as the inhabitants of the Forest of Dean closed around its secret, the locals closed around the ARC. Journalists were politely, but firmly, sent packing; a table was always waiting for the team on a Friday evening; and when they turned in black with someone conspicuously absent from thier midst; rounds were bought and no questions were asked.


	40. Connor Templ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 390

Lester had thanked the guests for coming. He had complimented the bride on her beauty and, having received a sharp and pointed glance from her, hastily complimented the groom on managing, at least, to coordinate his outfit. He'd told a mildly embarrassing story involving the bride, a "lizard" and workplace hygiene - and several more embarrasing ones involving unidentified pets; the groom; and unfortunate items of clothing including all the groom's underwear.

He raised his glass for the traditional toast.

"To Mr. and Mrs..." the groom gestured at the bride in frantic alarm. Lester coughed, "To Connor and Abby Maitland."


	41. The Witching Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 391

The faint aroma of brandy curled up from the glass in Helen's hand. It was a warm night. A light breeze stirred the bougainvillea that tumbled down the walls of the terrace.

"Penny for them?" Connor asked.

Helen turned to see him leaning against the entrace arch. Middle age suited him, she pondered mildly, or at least the self-assurance and confidence that came with it did.

"It all seems so long ago," she said, voicing a half-formed thought.

An anomaly blossomed open on the lawn.

"Typical!" murmured Connor.

Helen suppressed an amused smile. After all it was the witching hour.


	42. Pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 392

Lester stood silent in the mess room. The table was covered in square cardboard boxes, all open, and the smell of tomato, cheese, and baked dough filled the air. A few slices had even been eaten, but most of the pizza was still there, slowly getting cold. 

He hated this part of his job, waiting for the men to return from a shout, able to do little more than observe the detritus of the lives they left behind. 

As he walked back to his office, he heard Jess's relieved voice saying, "OK guys, come on home. Your job is done."


	43. All Things Bright and Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 393

_All things Bright and Beautiful_ was not, James Lester pondered, a hymn you got to sing very often once you were over the age of about 10 until, of course, you had children of your own.

He listened attentively while the class of earnest 7 year olds sang "He made their glowing colours, he made their tiny wings". He own son stood to the left, eyes slightly crossed as he struggled to remember the words. 

Lester couldn't help muttering, "presumably he also made their sharp teeth and he made their giant claws."

God, he reflected, was a right vicious bugger.


	44. All Creature Great and Small

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 394

_Veertig kliene paarden tegen één grote eend_

Connor squinted at Google translates rendering of the headline. "Forty small horses against one large duck," he read out.

Danny, leaning over his shoulder, chuckled. "Not a bad description of a standoff between some eohippus and a terror bird."

"I gather the terror bird had more of an advantage than that newspaper headline would suggest," Lester remarked.

"Just as well we were there to help then," Danny threw back.

Lester nodded. The eohippus were safe and the Dutch press were towing the line. "Both Abby and Jenny are happy. A job well done."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Some Explanation Probably Required:** The opening sentence is brought to you courtesy of the Duolingo app which asked me to translate it only this morning. This is not even close to the most surreal sentence the app has thrown at me - the Dutch, it seems to suggest, have an obsession with animals wearing clothes, moreover there is a very really probability that may one occasionally need to assure Dutch people that you are not a turtle.


	45. The Writing on the Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 395

The Neanderthal had little understanding of taxonomy but he could recognise something that was out of place. On the walls of his cave he drew the broken light and sharp toothed, sharp clawed predator that emerged.

The Florentine had all the accomplishments of a renaissance man but still little ability to explain his experience. In the fresh plaster for the fresco he painted the broken light and sharp toothed, sharp clawed predator.

Grafitti artist had little understanding of taxonomy or anything found in textbooks. Still, on the grimy concrete of the underpass he sprayed a broken light and a dinosaur.


	46. Animal, Vegetable or Mineral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 396

"Well," Jennifer peered at the rock again. "It can't be an animal."

"Why not!" demanded Professor Watson.

"Too early, this strata must be way down into the Cambrian."

He nodded. "Plant then?"

"I don't know. Honestly, it looks too regular for a natural organism and anyway it's too big for any life from that period."

"A fluke of rock formation."

Jennifer sighed. "It must be." 

She frowned at the potential fossil. It probably was just a fluke, but it looked suspiciously like a fossilised iPad.

* * *

"Oh Connor! Really?" Abby asked.

"It just slipped out of my hands into the water."


	47. The Holidays are Coming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 397

Every year, the Cutter family went to Scarborough for two weeks for their summer holiday. They stayed with Nick's great-aunt who had married a fisherman she met at Leith Docks and moved to England with him. She lived in a house by the sea, just along the coast from the town.

Flora Cutter watched indulgently as her son packed his suitcase. He was full of excitement about the coming holiday, and the opportunity to walk along the stony yorkshire beaches. Into his suitcase went a battered leather-bound notebook, rock hammer, compass and the _I-Spy Book of Minerals, Rocks and Fossils_.


	48. ...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 398

Jess thought that her father had spiked the punch. She certainly felt slight tipsy when she opened the door to find Becker holding a tree.

"Merry Christmas. I've bought you a partridge in a pear tree."

"I've read that book. If you bring two turtle doves tomorrow, there will be trouble."

"What book?"

"They end up bathing in milk and there are birds everywhere. He proposes on the thirteenth day."

"Did someone mention a proposal?" Jess's Dad wandered into the hall.

Becker looked distinctly hunted.

"I haven't said yes yet," Jess replied.

"No turtle doves tomorrow, I promise," said Becker.


	49. Naughty or Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 399

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been naughty, I hope the nice double drabble makes up for it
> 
> Nicky Brown is Fred's OC brother of Claudia, also Father Christmas introduced in [The Devil's Knell](http://fredbassett.livejournal.com/180069.html) and also appearing in [Twelth Night](http://fredbassett.livejournal.com/235173.html)

The ARC was silent. Not a creature was stirring, not even a diictodon. Lester checked the atrium and was relieved to see that Connor had gone. Abby had hopefully dragged him back home to warm firelight and, given the bulk order for dalek ornaments that had been delivered last week, an idiosyncratically decorated tree 

Lester went back into his office with a satisfied smile and poured two large sherries. The mince pies were courtesy of Mr. Kipling but their freshly microwaved smell was evocative of Christmas past.

"I assume you have a list." Nicky Brown pulled up a chair and sat opposite Lester. He wore a dark green cloak and there was a dusting of snow on his shoulders. Lester could hear sleigh bells in the Atrium.

Lester pulled a typed sheet of paper out of a drawer and handed it over.

"Stonehenge and Balmoral? Lyle has had a bumper year." Nicky raised bushy eyebrows taking a bite of mince pie.

Lester sipped the sherry. "It keeps him off the streets."

Nick made a humphing sound, although his eyes were twinkling. "Nice then?"

"My life won't be worth living if you gave him coal."

"Never liked Balmoral anyway," said Nicky.


	50. The Moment that Everything Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 400 (Picture Prompt)

In the moment when everything changes they are watching the anomaly.

Claudia stands at the back. The only solider who might have seen her vanish is focused on the crack in time so no one observes her going. Of course, if there had been anyone to see, they would have forgotten in an instant. Only a faint unease would have remained at the edge of their consciousness.

Everything else is constant. The universe folds itself around the gap in time and quietly stitches the edges back together. 

In the moment after everything has changed they are still watching the anomaly.


End file.
